St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-06-25
FOREIGN GOSSIP.
Chat About Persons and Things Com
piled From European Exchanges.

Democracy is spreading even in royal
circles. Recently Madame Woltner was pre-
sented by the Empress of Austria to the En-
press of Russia. Madame Woltner is the Ellen
Terry of Vienna, and the Viennese have just
been celebrating her jubilee. Her true title Is
the Countess O'Sullivan, but the Empress pre-
sented her as Madame Woltner. Il am proud
of you she said, ''as the Woltner-that is the
name by which 1 like to present you. l have
so many countesses at my court that your
other title conveys no distinction" This was
rather strong for the Empress of the East. But
it is very much the same story with Queen in
the West Recently the Queen Regent of Spain
had summoned a meeting of her ministry at
the Castle of Aranjuez. When they came to
the gate of the park the Queen was in a VIC
.oria and the Princess Isabel was in a drag and
four. The Queen was driving. She invited NJ.
Sagasta to take seat beside her, and the other
ministers were accommodated in the drag. On
reaching the castle coffee was brought and the
Queen ordered cigars to be produced as well
and offered to the gentlemen. The ministers
seemed to hesitate. In all the annals Of Span
ish history no subject had ever smoked in the
presence Of Queen. The Queen Regent, how
ever, gave the command, and her ministers. like
dutiful subjects, obeyed. Gold sticks and
CQdHl nave DS6u ever SllCe Ill uOpcleSS
dependency.
In the sand and gravel pit on Castle
Hill, Ellobghton, East Yorkshire, has recently
been found mammoth's tusk of large size.
Its length was close upon ten feet. and its
breadth varied from nine inches at the base to
six inches at the apex. An attempt was made
by several local antiquaries to remove the
specimen intact, but the tusk crumbled into
fragments when disturbed. Parts of the grind
ing teeth of mammoths were also found in the
pit, showing that at the time the gravel was
deposited these huge mammoths lived in num-
bers in the Humber valley. The geological
age of the gravel is uncertain, as there is no
other bed by which to fix its position in the
series; but, as it contains far Travelled pebbles,
it cannot be older than the glacial period. An
ancient British battle-ground was also cut into
in the upper part of the pit, and quantity of
human bones and fragment of an earthen-
ware food vessel were found in it.
The King of Italy is not of the same
mind as either the late unhappy Ludwig. of
Bavaria, or the Queen of England. King Hum
bert objects to taking his pleasures at shows
and exhibitions as solitary; he likes his people
to be present and share them with him. At the
opening of the exhibition at Venice, the King
gave expression to his disappointment at the
loneliness anu Oh lue HILLS AL Oill-
cial told him that the public had been kept out
from loyal consideration for the comfort of
himself and the Queen. II am sorry for this"
said his majesty, though you have done it in
good part; is my belief that theKing belongs to
the people as well as the people to the King"
Before leaving the exhibition he required to
the subject, again expressing his deep regret.
Il hope that none of you believe, said he THAT
am the sort of man who is shy of being seen
among the people. I have no grounds what
ever for such feeling
A conspicuous object in front of the
House of Commons recently was an army cap
tain, formerly belonging to the Eighty-sixth
Regiment,who, in order to attract attention to
some unheeded grievance he has against the
war Office, dressed himself up in most extra
ordinary manner. He wore black undress
military suit. a white campaigning shake. two
white satchels hanging at his sides, and he car
ried in his hands an enormous broom, with
handle about four feet long. Dressed in this
strange garb, and leaning on his broom, he
stood silently in front of one of the gates of
the House during the greater part of the day.
He did not appear to be mad but he seemed to
suffer from great mental distress. His age was
about tifty-fve, and even in this fantastic uni
form he had respectable and commanding
presence.
The Queens jubilee has become great
bore in England. Mr.. Labouchere says in his
paper, Truth: II believe that there are very
few persons in the United Kingdom who have
not privately expressed the opinion that were
royal jubilee to occur twice in a generation,
life would not be worth living. 1t has brought
to the front every pushing, advertising dolt
who wishes to attract attention to himself, or
who hopes to earn baronetcy or a knight
hood by some act of servilitv or some foolish
suggestion. Amongst the silly people give
the prize to Mr.. Montagu Sharp (whoever he
may be), who proposes that at noon, on June
q, every one should sit down to piano and
play God save the Queen The intelligent
Sharp opines that if this were done it would
produce in her majesty proud satisfaction!"
The London Times which has gone
into the ''penny dreadful" line Of literature.
publishing bugaboo articles on "Parnellism
and Crime" has still some reputation abroad
for trustworthiness. and this recently led to an
amusing occurrence. Count Bismarck, son
of the German chancellor, recently visiting
Killarney, Ireland, felt moved to provide him
self with a revolver 1t was fully as useful to
him as a suit of armor would be to a lawyer
along Fifth avenue in New York.
The English torpedo boats do not seem
to be very formidable vessels. During arecent
cruise of flotilla half the boats broke down.
Two of them burst their boilers, two were
damaged by collision, one lost a blade of its
propeller, and half dozen were temporarily
disabled "by breakdowns in the engine-rooms.
All these disasters, be it noted, were caused by
nothing worse than few days rough weather
in the channel.
n TInnecpSsary Tar.